3 Periods: Have the Penguins taken strides in any areas this season?

If the Pittsburgh Penguins miss the playoffs for the third consecutive season in roughly a month, an unfortunate sense of irony will persist, seeing as the club has taken significant strides in a number of departments that directly contributed to the postseason skid starting in the first place.

Defensive deficiencies and goaltending woes have contributed to a goal differential (minus-54 as of March 13) that ranks second worst in the NHL behind only the lowly San Jose Sharks (minus-75), seriously dimming the Penguins’ playoff hopes with 15 remaining games in the regular season.

However, looking at the Penguins’ performance while playing with leads, in addition to power-play efficiency, the club has made notable improvements.

At this point, both areas seem unlikely to propel the team, which is eight points out of an Eastern Conference wild-card spot, back into the thick of the postseason hunt.

But credit where credit’s due. Blowing fewer leads and finding a way to cash in on the man-advantage are positives that the Penguins will look to carry into next season and beyond.

Protecting leads

Last season, which saw the Penguins miss the playoffs by three points, was brutal for the team in terms of hanging onto leads.

In particular, the Penguins were not a safe bet to finish games when leading after two periods.

In 2023-24, the Penguins tied for the NHL lead with the Ottawa Senators and Chicago Blackhawks with five regulation losses when leading after 40 minutes.

They blew two other leads before ultimately falling in overtime, giving them seven total losses in games they led heading into the third period.

Needless to say, for a club that missed the playoffs by such a small margin, those repeated mishaps loomed large.

That was an issue that carried over from 2022-23, when the Penguins’ four regulation losses when leading after two periods was second worst in the NHL, behind only the New York Rangers’ five.

The Penguins went on to drop five more contests in such scenarios in overtime, making nine games in which they failed to protect a lead heading into the final frame.

This season, the Penguins, while not perfect, have vastly improved in their ability to close out games.

Only once have they carried a lead into the third period and fallen in regulation, in addition to two overtime defeats.

Power-play prowess

At least publicly, coach Mike Sullivan and his players struggled to articulate what exactly was keeping the power play from reaching its full potential over the past two seasons.

A few more goals on the man-advantage here and there surely would have made a difference for the Penguins, whose exclusion from the postseason in 2022-23 (one point) and ’23-24 came via razor-thin margins.

Two seasons ago, it finished 14th in the NHL with a 21.7% conversion rate. Not bad, but still unbecoming of a unit that boasted such elite talent.

A year later, the power play nosedived, finishing 30th in the league at 15.3%.

Heading into this season, assistant coach David Quinn replaced Todd Reirden, who oversaw the man-advantage and was fired in May 2024.

Quinn, a college teammate of Sullivan’s at Boston University and former head coach of the Sharks and New York Rangers, also coaches the Penguins’ corps of defensemen.

But leading the power play, he has seemed to crack the code, returning the Penguins to a top-10 unit in the NHL.

This season, through 67 games played, they have scored 45 power-play goals for a 24.2% conversion rate, good for ninth in the league.

In 2023-24, they managed only 40 in 82 games, while ’22-23 featured 63.